How do Babies Worship God?

If you are a little girl, and you can't sing the worship songs....

Then you do whatever you can to participate.

Gone Crazy. I mean Paleo.

As if I don't have enough to make my life interesting!  Well, to make a long story short, I got sick and tired of feeling sick and tired and we have gone Paleo.
What in the world is that?! I'll explain, but I must declare in advance, I do not believe in cavemen.

I have Hashimoto's (a crappy auto-immune disease) caused by something (some allergen or toxin) and it is going to eat away at me until my thyroid is gone and I would inevitably get lots of other crappy stuff like rheumatoid arthritis, crohn's disease, celiacs, lupis or some other bad stuff. At least, that is what I was told by an endocrinologist (when we lived in Colorado)- for many years I believed there was no hope and I just had to take a prescription and live with however cruddy I felt.  I could cry about it.  Or~

While I do have Hashimoto's I finally decided that no hope is crap and I am done feeling like this (anxiety despite prayer, panic despite peace, tired despite sleep, fat despite exercise, freezing despite warmth, you get the idea) and I need to do something about it.

With our research of Hashimoto's Auto Immune Disease (I was diagnosed with it in 2004, but probably had it since adolescence) added to my desire for real health (not covering up the symptoms with allopathic care, eating living foods and cutting out junk) we decided to do a full elimination/aggravation in hopes of discovering what is causing my disease, and pay to see a doctor that actually knew about my disease.

Since the most common allergens are wheat/gluten, grains, and dairy, the diets are pretty strict. Here is what we came up with:

Paleo~

“But what does all that really mean?” you may ask. Most of our day-to-day eating involves:

•  Protein, in the form of lean meats, poultry, seafood, and things we (or others) could hunt/catch/spear.  
• Carbohydrates, in the form of vegetables and some fruit. Lots and lots of  colorful, nutritious vegetables. Yes, veggies are “carbs.” So are fruits. So are bagels. We don’t eat the bagels.
• Fats, in the form of coconut oil or coconut milk, nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oil, clarified butter.
• All kinds of herbs and spices.                                       (http://paleocomfortfoods.com/what-is-paleo/)

Here is a Start Guide for Paleo. I am against the name Paleo, as I do not believe in cavemen, evolution, millions of years, order from chaos, big bang, yadda yadda, but the greenies that started this diet happen to actually understand a whole lot about the body and I don't have a problem gleaning from the grace that has been given to them.

There is a plethora of recipes and information available since it is all the new rave.

My sweet husband agreed to do it with me (mostly) and my children, by default are along for the ride. We planned to do full Paleo for 30 days and then add in one by one certain foods and watch for a reaction when new foods are introduced for six months.
Yes, for half a year I am eating no grains.  I started this post before I went to the doctor and I thought I was going to be smart by going on Paleo on my own, the conclusion from my own research and all.  Imagine my surprise when my doc said I needed to go grain free for 6 months.  Oh me, Smarty Pants.

Basically the immune system lives in the gut, my immune system is shot, and I need to let my gut heal.

Well, if it is going to be an adventure,  I thought I would share some meals with you along the way.

Out of sorts...

My life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately.  I can't pinpoint exactly the cause, but it seems like I'm on a treadmill and I'm not loosing any weight.  Or something.

It has been one thing after another, summer birthdays, figuring out how to overcome rising grocery costs with 9 mouths to feed, several friends having new babies, my broken thyroid and possible adrenal problems...

Mr. Pilot has been "working" almost every night.  He hasn't been flying so he doesn't feel like its work, but he has been standing duty until midnight even on weekends because that is what they are having him to do right now.  It's makes having a normal schedule kinda hard.

We start school on Monday.  We normally school year round but had planned to take the summer off.  We did take some time off after Biscuit was born, but had to press since we still had a lot to finish.  We still have some straggly-loose ends so it feels like we never took a break.   We are excited for the new school year though, we will be starting Tapestry year 3.  We still love that curriculum and highly recommend it, especially if you are teaching more than one grade level.

I think, mostly, my frazzledness has to do with the perpetual "my husband could be leaving tomorrow for a very long period of time" predicament.  I read that pre-deployment really puts a strain on a family, but I can't find any advice about the supposed-to-leave-two-months-ago-so-deployment-is-any-day type of pre-deployment.  Thankfully, the details of the delay are so ridiculous that we find comfort in knowing only God could orchestrate this and are attempting to simply enjoy this "extra" time.

My husband has requested to take some leave so that we could perhaps enjoy a few days of respite.

and this little Biscuit is growing so fast, she just loves to make eyebrows, coo and gurgle at us!

Sorrow and a Savior

Our family has been homesteading across the country these last few years, and we've been largely removed from many of the normal ups and downs a family experiences in it's development. One of these many progressions has finally caught up with us. Earlier this week my beloved wife's grandmother passed away. This is the great matriarch of her family that has born the central role of stability for the family for quite a few decades after severe tragedy in the family many long years ago. She had already buried before her, husband, mother, and several children. My wife's father is now the lone head of the family since her passing. My children had met her several times and we do have many pictures of them together despite the infrequency of visits to the area.

There are many things that one can think about on the passing of a family member. We have already looked at various pictures to refresh our memories of our time together, and my wife has spoken with various members of the family receiving support and offering condolences for our inability to come for a funeral. We want to remember all of the good things that we enjoyed, a proper and a natural function of grief, but we also have the opportunity to review the things that brought us into this horrible mess too.

My family and I had a discussion, over dinner last night, about the cause of our ultimate journey to death. We remembered that death is the result of sin, and that sin has permeated every fabric of the world since our father Adam.

“Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” Romans 5:12

We are all going to die one day, because we all have sin, and sin is a result of our incipient rebellion against our heavenly Creator. Adam brought this upon us, but we are all like him, and will continue to abound in our own way of living because we each have an independent rebellious heart.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

This is a terrible condition and our degenerating bodies, minds, and souls are the fruit of this condition. The situation is magnified since this rebellion is against our Creator!

“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:10

Death is the judgement of a holy God against a wicked creation.

Our lone answer comes in the form of a baby, born in a manger, in the town of Bethlehem. A baby whose birth we celebrate in the very near future.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

So as we remember the memory of our deceased and the season we rapidly approach, let us remember together our only hope, for:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

"I Will Praise You in the Storm"

I am sure you have all heard about the storms and tornados in the south last week.  And do you remember when I told you about an Inspiring Weekend we had last year at 

this church?  How we sat right in front of the blog owner of Generation Cedar and didn't even realize?

My correspondence with Kelly has grown over the last year, and what an encouragement she has been to me.

And now, even more.

This is Kelly's house now, after a tornado ripped through it with her family of 11 and 3 other families in it.

Here is what happened

And here is some of her response:

 

May the Lord be glorified.  May all who see these stories understand what power and passion lies in the blood of those bound together in Christ.

I wouldn’t change things if I could because after experiencing this kind of love, to reverse the tornado damage would mean losing that experience.

I have been so humbled by her unwavering faith in the works of the Lord.  He is mighty to save, all is not lost.

Join with me in prayer for all of the families that are still sifting through the debris and mourning lost loved ones?

and If you want to help in a tangible way, click HERE

Eating Grubs.

We don't like it when our Top Man is missing.  Just google SERE school.  Then pray. For me.  For him.  For us...

Don't Let Her Crawl!

Tonight my two biggest boys are leaving us. They have to fly back to Mississippi so Mr. Pilot can check out and they can drive our other car back here. It's going to be a great opportunity for a "Father-Son Trip" and I am glad Boy gets to go.

But a little sad too. Last night with boyish arms thrown around me he said "mom, I'm a little sad about leaving, I've never been away from you for that long, or that far away from you! And who will open doors and carry heavy boxes for you?" and he brought tears to my eyes. I didn't know he would even think like that. Then this morning I overheard him saying to Bucket in his sweet bug brother voice "you better not start crawling while I'm gone, little Missy" and again, a tear.

My Boy is so full of love and compassion. I will miss him terribly. And his Daddy, too.

Safe travels, good weather, and God Speed!

Thank You!

I thought I finally found the time to write out my Thank You cards for all the meals/gifts we received when Bucket was born only to discover someone was being thoughtful and decided to help me by writing the thank you's for me.

So if you brought us a meal or gift, it'll be awhile before you get your card in the mail.  I have to go buy some new cards.

:~)

Pink eye Fun?!

Black tea bags to soothe pink eye...

The flight Dr. gave Mr. Pilot a whole week off for his pink eyes.  Well, he didn't actually give him a week off, he just said "I don't want you anywhere near the squadron until that clears up, it will be at least a week." He really doesn't want the other pilots to get it too...  So, we will count it as a blessing, we got to have Dad home with us for another week!

Boy and Sis are pink eye free, theirs only lasted a couple days.  Guys and Dad are still a little pink, but much improved.  They should be all clear by tomorrow.  Yay!

on the mend!

Sis's fever is gone, and her pink eye too.  Boy is feeling much better from his fever yesterday, and his pink eye is also gone.  Guys and Dad's eyes are still pink, and Dad is at the doc right now since you can't fly with pink eye.  Because of the flood and the pink eye, Dad has had almost an extra week home with us, and that is always nice.  I am not sure he'd prefer having pink eye over flying, but I'm looking at the bright side here!  Anyway, seems like we are getting better and I am so thankful!

We are kind of a mess over here.

Not even a week after Bucket was born we got a sickness in the house. Pops came down with a super high fever while we were on a trip to Florida (yes, we were on a trip, it was a special event). It ended up being a sad trip. We went to see Daddy Culburrito get his wings and to say good-bye to our BFTKC'S because orders to move far away came with the wings. With a sick Pops, we spent most of our time hiding in a hotel so as not to get a pregnant Mama Culburrito or her brood sick and didn't really get to spend time with anyone...
We returned home from the exhausting weekend and were welcomed by a flooded house! Someone closed the gray water tank and someone else left the water on a trickle for the cats. That tiny little trickle flooded the gray tank and the bathtub and left an inch of water on the floor. We had to empty out much of the house into the 105 degree sunshine. What a long, hot day! Thankfully we have a family in Christ here. Our Pastor and another man came with shop vacs and fans to suck up and dry out the trailer. We stayed with another family for two days while the house dried out. This was actually a wonderful time, we made some new friends and they even helped us celebrate Sis's 6th Birthday. What a generous body ! The only damage is the carpet is now swirled with discoloration, and several books and a few other things were ruined.
After being back home for just 2 days, Sis was knocked down with the fever. This morning Dad, Guys, and Boy all woke up with pink eye. Uhg! I am trying to keep the germs off Bucket, take care of the sic-kies, get enough sleep, and stay sane.
So if you don't mind, say a little prayer for us.
This too, shall pass!

Creepy Crawly

Can we shave our heads and walk around in Bee Keeper Nets?

Please?

I just dug another tick out of one of my children. I have on my brave face for my kids, but I have the heebie jeebies inside. In my mind there are a gazillion ticks and other horrendous things crawling all over me and my children and our beds right now.  My husband checked and says there are no more ticks.

For now anyway.

I already shaved Socks, our dog.  I'm having a hard time stopping there.  My cats better watch out.

So, if you see us walking around shaved heads or wearing nets, you will know why.

We Survived...

One of the situations that had crossed my mind as a dreaded thought about living in the travel trailer was the idea of us getting the stomach flu.  Having only one toilet with 7 people is bad enough, but when people are puking (or doing something else that comes with a stomach virus) I just couldn't imagine.

Besides, there are Murphy's Laws of "The Stomach Bug."

Murphy's Law 1~ if one kid gets sick, they all get sick.  And my kids love to share.

Murphy's Law 2 ~ kids will puke in the most inconvenient places (i.e. their car seat when two hours away from home, mom's freshly washed bed spread, in the toy box with the toys still in it, at the dinner table with dinner on it...) 

I really dreaded the thought of it, but I thought we were in the clear since winter is over.  Not so.

It all started late Sunday night after arriving home from a weekend visit with our BFTKC friends in Florida.

It finally stopped yesterday.

I will spare you all most of the details.

Tuesday night I slept less than one hour.  Only by God's grace was I still kind to the children still puking at 5am when daddy left for work.  Several extra loads of laundry isn't really fun to pay for, nor is it fun to carry up to the bath house.  Luckily we had plenty of buckets to go around so there was no fighting over the lone toilet.  I even got pretty good at predicting when the 18 month old was going to blow and I got really good at catching it.  Except when it was in the car seat, two hours from home.  And my freshly washed bed spread was freshly washed 3 times this week.  And all of the toys in the toy bucket were disinfected, a task I had been meaning to do for months.  And I managed to catch the episode at the dinner table before it ruined all of our dinner, without a moment to spare.

Somehow only Guys managed to remain tummy bug free, even dad and I got to enjoy some bug fun.  Guys was such a blessing, she made pancakes from scratch a few times during the week to help out.  She also drank some apple cider vinegar and washed her hands.  A lot.

Now that it is over, I don't have to dread it anymore.
I wouldn't sign up for it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined.  But I am glad it's over.

Prayer for Lizzy

Last night our dear friend Lizzy was kicked by her horse in the abdomen. She ruptured her spleen and is in a lot of pain. They have to wait 24 hours to see if the internal bleeding will stop on it's own and determine if they need to do surgery. She's having trouble with the morphine, so please pray for relief from pain as well as healing and peace.

Here's Lizzy with some of our kids and one of her brothers and her sister...

I'll keep you posted!

Pollen, You Make Me Sick!

There has been a yellow cloud over us for the past week.

The weather has been wonderful, sunny and 80, but we haven't been able to enjoy it for the pollen.  We are surrounded by evergreens, which I love, but they are making all of us sick.

There are yellow cloud monsters coming across the lake and when a bird lands in a tree a big yellow poof comes off of the branch.

The lake has turned into yellow slime

Everything has a fine yellow powder on it.  These pictures are from yesterday, and it is much worse today.  

I don't even want to go outside to take a new picture.

I really wish it would rain!
Runny noses, itchy eyes and throats... Not fun!

My Numbers are Missing!

I use our poor electric skillet often. Very. Often.
Like, more than once a day.  I seriously doubt Wolfgang Puck intended it for daily use, and certainly not more than once a day use.

I started making dinner the other night and went to turn the skillet on to 350 but there was no 350.   There is nothing at all!  Someone (no way it could have been me, I hope) must have wiped the numbers off last time they washed it.  Now I have no idea at what temperature I'm cooking!

This is sooooo exciting!

It'll Never Get Easy

I spent two hours this morning consoling crying children and praying for Daddy. He left early this morning for another cross country flight. Over the last 11.5 years of his naval career Daddy has often had to leave for days, weeks, or months at a time. You'd think we'd get used to it and after-all, I did sign up for this military life, right?

With a Daddy like ours, I am certain we will never get used to him being gone.  He comes home from work every day to a bunch of kids who tackle him with hugs and kisses.  The little girls love taking off Daddy's big flight boots and then they can hardly wait for him to change out of his flight suit.  He sits with one (or more) children on his lap until dinner's ready, listening to us rattle on about our day, helping with any missed school work, and telling us about his day. Then we enjoy dinner together with more talking. After dinner and clean-up we all gather around Daddy and sing our favorite songs and hymns and he reads the bible to us. Then, while the children are getting ready for bed, Daddy will study for work.

How could we ever not miss him? He is such a wonderful father and husband.
We are so blessed to have him and are enjoying this time when he only has to leave for the weekend- soon enough he'll will be gone for more than half a year at a time. Only by God's grace will we be able to keep our chins up then.

Will you join us and pray the Lord will always keep Daddy safe in his dangerous job?

We love you Daddy, fly fast!

When Motherhood is Stressful

When Motherhood is Stressful…

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So What's Up with My Pregnancy?

Once I realized something was wrong I was able to get into the doc first thing and what I went in for ended up being a blessing in disguise. I was told to take it easy, not lift anything, and not stand around. That is all, go home. Oh, and I'd need surgery once the baby is born. Like it was no big deal. Well surgery is a big deal to me, and I am determined to find natural ways to fix the problem and prove them wrong, but I am glad it wasn't something horrifying. I then asked to hear the baby's heart beat, I don't think there is a sweeter sound short of baby's first cry, but, they couldn't find it. This is one of those moments that you feel the whole world crash around you, but you are determined to be positive, so you look at the doctor with a blank stare while the tears well up... so they sent me over for an ultrasound. I was so thankful they didn't make me wait a few days! Praise God they found the heartbeat and baby is looking good, but they also discovered I have placenta previa. This should not be a problem as it is only partial and will most likely resolve in a few months when the baby is bigger, but in combination with the other issue, it could cause some major problems for me right now~ hence the bed rest. This isn't an ideal situation for a momma of 5, but it is totally worth it.

One of the things we have been doing to pass the time during this morning sick, cold, flu, bed rest time is watch movies. We don't typically spend much time in front of a screen, and not having a t.v. has helped with that, (I was shocked when I recently read that it is recommended that children, even 3 year old's should watch less than 2 hours of t.v. per day. Per day?! That is insane! When do kids who go to school and do homework and play basketball see their parents?) but when you are desperate, you do what you can. We have downloaded a few movies from iTunes to enjoy on our big screen Mac. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was decent and had some good teaching messages but I do not recommend watching it while suffering morning sickness. It was awful. Fiddler on the Roof has been watched several times over the last few weeks and has become a real favorite in our house, we are constantly singing the songs to each other. We have also enjoyed Up, all of the Star Wars saga and Ben Hur... Guys received Mysterious Islands for Christmas, and we all enjoyed that very much. If you have any interest in understanding how God could be real since we've been taught evolution is real, I highly recommend it. I highly recommend it even if you don't have any interest in that, it is very good.

Christmas and a Cold Winter

I want to get these blog posts that have been swimming in my head on here so you could all be filled in on what we have been up to. I finally typed up one big loooooong post, but Dad said it was toooo long so I am going to try to break it up... Here is the first back-post.

We had a nice quiet Christmas at home, it was very simple, partly to go along with the year of simplicity, and partly because I was trying to keep my saltines and ginger-ale from coming back up, but it was a sweet time. We have many traditions that had to be set aside this year, for example we didn't have a tree, but I think we came up with some new ones too. We were supposed to have dinner with friends for Christmas Eve, but they ended up with the flu so we stayed home. Since I hadn't planned on making dinner, we had to throw something together quickly. It was pouring rain and very gray, which also didn't lend a cozy white Christmas feeling, but we made do. We played a very long game of Risk, drank hot chocolate, read the Christmas story in the Bible, and opened our traditional Christmas Eve gift, pajamas.

This winter has been a little rough on us. I know it has been bad everywhere, but I do think we had some special challenges living in a tin can with no heat. Sometime during a heavy wind storm our awning busted off. We had to move our dresser of shoes into the van and now we are constantly tripping over shoes that don't have a place. Without the awning the freezer also filled with rain which promptly froze, so we had to chip our food out. Now it is covered with a tarp. There isn't a closet for the 7 winter jackets the we had to spend 5 hours digging out of the storage unit, so they too, are being constantly tripped over.